How do we plan under conditions of uncertainty? The perspective of military planners is a key organizing framework: do they see themselves as preparing to administer a peace; or preparing to fight a future war? Most interwar volumes examine only the 1920s and the 1930s. This new volume goes back; and forward in time; to draw on a greater expanse of history in order to tease out lessons for contemporary planners.These chapters are grouped into four periods: 1815-1856; 1871-1914; 1918-1938; and post-Second World War. They progress from low-tech to high-tech concerns; for example; the first period examines armies; while the second period examines navies; the third asseses navies combined with air forces; and finally for the Kaiser chapter explores nuclear issues and decision-making.
#2577545 in Books 2006-01-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 6.00 x 1.00l; 1.37 #File Name: 0415257484408 pages
Review
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Students' thesis; shallow researchBy Kukai888This research pretends to embrace the whole world; but it doesn't go into deep. It's just a survey of cults; and clearly the author just filled the 380+ pages with useless bibliography and repeating the same phrases over and over again; such as "see chapter x". Poor work coming from such an exalted scholar. It seems that he asked his students to research on the topics ; and then he just published the results. Very expensive book for the poor and shallow outcome. Obviously they made a good business.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Welcomed Addition to the Study of Religion SpiritualityBy P. Cunningham"New Religions in Global Perspectives" by Peter B. Clarke (2006) is a good book; especially if you are interested in how humanity's religious sentiment is expressed in different and similar ways across societies and cultures in the modern (and so-called postmodern) world. Clarke's book is less profound than Needleman Baker's (1981) classic "Understanding the New Religions." It provides; however; a more balanced view of so-called New Age Movements (NAMs) than presented by Lewis Melton's (1992) edited "Perspectives on the New Age." Clarke thankfully avoids the polemics and loaded language that characterizes such books as Peters' (1991) "The Cosmic Self" and LeBar's (1989) "Cults; Sects; and the New Age;" which not infrequently disparage NAMs as alterative faith systems to Christianity that turn man into God; while disingenuously accepting alternative conventionally-held Christian doctrinal tenets that turn God into man and the notion that the Son of God could be contained in one human frame. Drawbacks to the text are its cost; its over-attention to detail; and repetitiveness. The sticker price of the book is a bit of a shock. It costs over $100 "used" as of this writing which I consider over-priced; especially for an .com book. My recommendation is to have an academic library purchase the book (or obtain a copy through interlibrary loan) and then borrow it as a patron to read. The first two chapters that provide defining characteristics of NRMs and NAMs are the best chapters of the book. Subsequent chapters outline NRMs as they appear in Europe; North and South America; the Caribbean; Australia; New Zealand; New Guinea; Africa; the Middle East; and Asia. These characteristics are presented in such excruciating detail that the global forest becomes lost in the local trees. The repetitiveness occurs as the author tries to make connections among the diverse geographical regions -- connections that are repeated within each chapter -- to establish the book's "global perspective" and to point out similarities across the multiple and diverse forms that spirituality and religion take in the human species. Positively; this is a scholarly work with references and a selected bibliography at the end of each chapter. These bibliographies are helpful aids for the student of cross-cultural psychology who is interested in pursuing the innovative character of new religious movements in more depth. One evocative idea that comes out of Clarke's work is the notion of "glocalization" -- the process of shaping the local religion and being shaped by it. It draws readers' attention to the emergence of "a new class (of seekers) that neither belongs nor believes. . . Even where affiliation to one faith only is still considered important; doctrinal tenets are increasingly seen as matters of personal opinion. . . .The possibility of multiple belonging becomes much more likely as religions come to reshape each other" (pp. 4-5). In other words; the various NRM and NAMs are shaping rather than displacing the form and content of traditional world religions; and giving rise to spirituality over religion and personal praxis over doctrinal tenets. Clarke's global perspective is appreciated at a time when much conventional research into the psychology of religion and spirituality is covertly ethnocentric. It complements the cross-cultural approach that academic fields such as transpersonal studies take in their study of the religious change that we as a species are experiencing today. For these reasons; this reader has found Clarke's book to be a welcomed addition to the scholarly literature of religious and spiritual change in the modern world.
